how to help students conquer comprehension reading section in GCSEs

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION I Rationale: Nowadays English has become an international language because it is widely used in many parts of the world and in many fields of our life In Viet Nam, English has become a core subject at school and a compulsory subject in every GCSE Studying English to prepare for exams especially reading comprehension section is a difficult problem and usually makes students discouraged What is more, it is a fact that questions related to comprehension reading have now become a mandatory part of various examinations Reading comprehension is the part which makes students lose the most points Most students fear the reading comprehension in National exams They are overwhelmed with vocabulary they don’t know the meaning Reading comprehension in National exams contains 12 comprehensive questions with passages: Passage with 250-300 words in length includes comprehensive questions Passage with 350-400 words in length includes comprehensive questions Comprehensive questions used in the two passage vary between easy and intermediate level or high level In the case of English language exams, answering comprehension questions is not an easy task To solve the questions students need a wide range of vocabulary, and structures I know that the majority of students always find it hard to this type of tests At first sight, they not figure out the content of the passage, but they are not patient enough to read the passage to the end under the pressure of time during the test As a result, many students ignore the passages or usually put this part aside and return to it at the end of the test time At that time they choose the answer at random On the other hand, teachers rarely show or sometimes refuse to teach students how to the Reading Comprehension test From the fact above, my concern is always how to help my students to face the fears of comprehensive questions and enable them to answer the questions more effectively If they conquer the questions in reading comprehension section, the result in GCSEs will be improved much According to students, the part in which students usually make the most errors is Reading Comprehension This part may be the most difficult and become students’ “nightmare” From the rationales mentioned above, I have decided to write my own experience initiative on the topic “how to help students conquer comprehension reading section in GCSEs” I hope that my experience initiative will equip my students effective strategies to overcome challenging questions in comprehension reading and help students of Mai Anh Tuan high school confidently come in the coming national examination II Aims of the study The research aims to: - helping the 12th grade students at Mai Anh Tuan high school understand the nature of comprehension reading questions in national exams - Improving students’ reading skills by analyzing the tests in the previous national examinations - Giving students some ways to confidently deal with popular types of comprehension reading questions in national exams tests so as to complete the tests best my students can - Helping students be more confident when taking the next national examination to get full mark on this reading comprehension part of test III Participants of the study: Participants of the study were 12th grade students in three classes (12A, 12C, 12G) at Mai Anh Tuan High School The study was carried out during the academic year 2018 – 2019 at Mai Anh Tuan High School IV Methods of study In the process of doing the study, I used several research methods: Observation: I attended some English periods to get a general view of teaching and learning in the 12th grade reading lessons at Mai Anh Tuan School and specifically to find out some information related to the reason why students don’t the tasks correctly and effectively, and how students’ participations in the lessons are I gave students a number of reading practice tests, observed them doing the tests, found out the time they spend doing reading comprehension discovered whether they miss reading comprehension in the tests Questionnaires: The aims of the questionnaires were: - to discover whether students like and understand the lesson, and whether they understand the questions clearly - to discover which part of tests is the most difficult, which part they are afraid of - to know whether the ways I have given are really effective Interviews: In this study, interviewing was used to obtain ideas and information from students about reading skill lessons they learned Lesson plans: Prepare the lessons carefully Choose reading passages related to the reading topics in textbook 12 wisely and questions usually used in GCSEs Teacher's diaries: I had to prepare many reading exercises at various levels for the three classes Therefore, after every reading practice test, I always jotted down the results, the questions many students make mistakes Analyzing and comparison: - After every mock test, I analyzing the students’ work and compare with the previous result to find out what students have achieved and what is their weakness PART TWO: PROBLEM SOLVING I Basis of the study: Reading comprehension, the report noted, is the result of many different mental activities by a reader, done automatically and simultaneously, in order to understand the meaning communicated by a text These mental activities include:  Predicting the meaning of a text;  Determining the purpose of a text;  Activation of prior knowledge in order to  Connect prior experiences to the text;  Identify word and sentence meanings in order to decode the text;  Summarize the text in order to create new meanings;  Visualize the characters, settings, situations in the text;  Question the text;  Decide what is not understood in the text;  Use strategies to improve understanding of the text;  Reflect on the meaning of a text;  Apply understanding of the text as needed [1] Reading comprehension is not learned immediately, it is a process that is learned over time In other words, reading comprehension takes practice Good reading comprehension comes only with practice [2] Without reading comprehension skills, they're unable to fully understand the content, predict what will happen next In reading comprehension test, reading skills are tested, not vocabulary Therefore, students need strategies, some tips to get over reading comprehension II Basis of facts: There is the fact that the result of English in national examinations of students from Mai Anh Tuan High School hasn’t been dissatisfying Undeniably, it has been considered as the “depression” in learning English map Here are the statistic about the results of 2017 and 2018 national examinations of Mai Anh Tuan High School: School year : 2017 Class Number of students 12A 46 Subject: English 1≤ đ2 ≤ đ ≤ đ 4≤đ 5≤đ ≤ đ 7≤đ ≤ đ9 ≤ đ Average